By Casey Seiler

Updated 6:45 am, Tuesday, July 30, 2013

As a new poll suggested the disgraced former congressman's campaign was in free fall, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand refused to be pinned down on Weiner's troubled run for mayor of New York City.

Almost a week after new revelations that Weiner engaged in pornographic sexual exchanges with women as recently as a year ago, a Quinnipiac University poll found him sliding in the estimation of likely Democratic primary voters: The former front-runner was fourth, attracting only 16 percent against City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (27 percent), Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (21 percent), and former City Comptroller William Thompson (20 percent).

Appearing on Long Island to sign legislation restructuring the Long Island Power Authority, Cuomo managed to respond to a question about Weiner at length without mentioning his name.

"This is summer political theater in New York," he said. "We laugh, because if we didn't laugh we would cry, right? People run — the way our system works, people have a right to run. You get signatures on the ballot, but we have this open democracy and anybody can run.

" ... I'm not going to say who should run and who shouldn't run, because that is the system. Who wins, however, is different — and that's where the electorate comes in, and the responsibility of the electorate comes in," he continued.

"We're only in the opening act of this play, and we have a long way to go," Cuomo concluded as a press aide brought the Q&A to an end.

Asked about Weiner at a morning news conference in Albany's Sheridan Hollow, Gillibrand took a similar line, refusing to endorse or knock any mayoral candidate.

"My goal is to make sure that New York City voters get to decide that race, and they will have an opportunity to do that," Gillibrand said.

However, she distinguished that contest from the primary battle for city comptroller, where Gillibrand endorsed Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer over former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

"In the mayor's race, I have a lot of friends in that race — you have amazing public servants running for that position," she said.

Does she count Weiner among those friends? "Huma is a very good friend of mine," Gillibrand said, referring to Weiner's wife Huma Abedin, who like Gillibrand has close professional and political ties to Hillary Clinton.

Asked to assess Weiner's performance in Congress — where the two overlapped — Gillibrand said, "He was a very strong advocate for the grass-roots and for a lot of very liberal Democratic causes." At which point her aide brought the Q&A to a close.